The Operas of Leoš Janáček

Extract

To Discuss the operas of Janáček without a smattering of Czech is rash. The extensive Janáček literature so far published is almost all in untranslated Czech; this includes the composer's two treatises on harmony, which are said to be obscure even to his compatriots. Moreover, Janáček's music is closely linked with the rhythms and contours of speech in his native Moravia, and study of this aspect of his work is inevitably hampered by ignorance of the language. My solitary claim to speak to a learned society on the subject—apart from a personal enthusiasm which can be taken for granted—is that during recent years I have been able to see all nine of his operas performed in Czechoslovakia, some of them more than once, and some of them elsewhere in Europe as well. Criticism of opera on the basis of the printed page alone, though often unavoidable, is seldom satisfactory; in the case of Janáček it is particularly hazardous.